As portable electronic devices become more compact, and the number of functions performed by a given device increases, it has become a significant challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with a multifunction device. This challenge is particularly significant for handheld portable devices, which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptop computers. This situation is unfortunate because the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device's features, tools, and functions. Some portable communication devices (e.g., mobile telephones, sometimes called mobile phones, cell phones, cellular telephones, and the like) have resorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing the density of push buttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user.
Many conventional user interfaces, such as those that include physical pushbuttons, are also inflexible. This is unfortunate because it may prevent a user interface from being configured and/or adapted by either an application running on the portable device or by users. When coupled with the time consuming requirement to memorize multiple key sequences and menu hierarchies, and the difficulty in activating a desired pushbutton, such inflexibility is frustrating to most users.
Many portable electronic devices, such as cellular phones or personal digital assistants can be locked when not in use. Locking these devices prevents their inadvertent use. Additionally, these devices may also display notifications of various communications received by the device but not yet seen by the user (e.g., communications received while the device is locked). Such notifications may include notifications of communications received from external sources, such as missed calls or email messages. However, the user is typically unable to view such notifications unless the device is in an unlocked mode. Furthermore, navigating through the user interface of the device to view a particular notification or a particular communication may be cumbersome.
Accordingly, there is a need for portable multifunction devices with more transparent and intuitive user interfaces for managing communications received while the device is in a locked state that are easy to use, configure, and/or adapt.